Up unit your child starts school, his or her progress will be monitored by the BVC (barnavårdscentralen). If you give birth in Sweden, you should already have been told which BVC to go to. You may even be contacted directly by your BVC nurse, and in many places she will do a home visit in the first few days to see how you are both settling in.
If you arrive in the country with children, you will need to phone the BVC to inform them of your arrival and ask for a nurse to be assigned. The easiest way to find your local BVC is either through Yellow Pages (gulasidorna - either the phone book or on line), or by phoning your doctor and asking them.
The nurse you meet at the BVC is responsible for checking that your child is growing at an acceptable rate – they monitor weight, height and head-size – is meeting acceptable developmental targets (physical skills, vocabulary and so on), has no medical issues (hearing, sight, autism etc.) and is immunised according to the Swedish immunisation schedule. Your child will also see a doctor on a regular basis and may also have dental appointments arranged.
During your first meeting, they should outline how often you will meet (for a newborn, there will be weekly checks scaling gradually down as the child gets older) and explain what they monitor in more detail. If you have moved into the country with children, check how the immunisation schedules and progress checks you have been following elsewhere will fit into the Swedish system.
As with so many aspects of healthcare in Sweden, you may find the attitude more laid back than you have come across elsewhere. A small example is on the growth charts – no percentiles are given, that would be too comparative. Instead, as long as your child continues to follow a certain growth curve, nobody will be concerned. If you have specific concerns over your child’s development, ask, and if you want to arrange more frequent appointments, be prepared to insist upon it. You may feel as though you are being treated as the paranoid foreign parent but many Swedes are treated just the same so go with your gut instinct.
One thing to make clear about the BVC system is that it is not for treating sick kids. In fact, if your child is ill, you shouldn’t attend even a pre-booked BVC appointment. Sick children should be taken to your regular doctor – see the first section in this chapter. However, if you child is aged under one, you can phone the BVC for advise about what to do. If the BVC nurse thinks they should visit the doctor, they will book an appointment with them on your behalf.
Once your child starts school, the school health system (skolhälsovård) takes over from the BVC. Unless your child has a specific chronic condition, the school doctors and nurses will just be responsible for general health education, administering vaccinations and general health checks of height, weight, sight and hearing (which should be conducted three times during compulsory school and once at gymnasium).